LRC department head stays

Arizona Daily Wildcat Richard Ruiz

Citing personal reasons, Richard Ruiz, head of the Department of Language, Reading and Culture, announced last week that he plans to stay at the University of Arizona.

Ruiz announced his resignation June 10 and implied he had accepted an offer to chair the Teaching and Learning Department of the University of Miami.

"I never wanted to leave. . This is my home," Ruiz said Monday.

"I expect to live and die in Arizona."

Ruiz said his decision to stay was not affected by an offer made by Education College Dean John Taylor.

Taylor could not be reached for comment but told the Arizona Summer Wildcat on June 18 that he and Provost Paul Sypherd had offered Ruiz increased funding for the department if he decided to stay at the UA.

The offer included a three-year guarantee that if a professor retires or resigns from the department, the money from his or her salary would remain in the department.

Taylor said the offer included four in-state graduate tuition waivers over five years and a 20 percent base-salary increase for Ruiz, which he could apply to another faculty member's salary, or to departmental projects.

However, Ruiz said because he decided to stay on his own, the offer was rescinded. But he said he hopes Taylor will increase funding for the LRC Department.

While Ruiz said he did not actively seek the position in Miami, he was interested in it because Miami's School of Education is highly regarded, something he does not see at UA.

"As a college, we don't get the regard we need to do our jobs," he said.

"The College of Education is the largest graduate college in the university. Proportionally, we get very few resources," Ruiz said.

The June 10 announcement of his resignation caused concern within the department because of an apparent trend in the departure of faculty, LRC doctoral candidate Mariella Espinoza-Herold said.

In the last four years two LRC professors have resigned, one has been on a full leave of absence for the last three years, and another has been on a partial leave of absence for about five years.

If Ruiz leaves, "the quality of our education will suffer," Espinoza-Herold, told the Arizona Summer Wildcat in June.

"I was happy with the support people showed," Ruiz said, yet he denied the existence of any sort of negative relationship between the LRC Department and Taylor.

"I hope it will be possible for the department as a whole, the faculty, staff and students, to develop plans to maintain the excellence of this department," he said.

"I hope we will be able to work constructively and collaboratively now."

Ruiz said he plans to remain as department head of LRC in the fall semester, but he hopes someone else will step up to assume those duties in the following year.